is my go-to source for internet shorthand. Any reason the FBI's too good to just use that?

Urban dictionary is edited by volunteers, and there are no real guidelines for entries. So, I suppose it could infiltrated by terrorists, who pose as submitters and editors to hide the true meaning of some internet abbreviations they are using to communicate about their next attack...??

(I'm being sarcastic here, but unfortunately knowing the U.S. government and current paranoia levels, this probably isn't far from their logic.)

Just as a large exhaustive list makes no sense as many association, social group or language specifc and only a very few, will spread wider, LOL might well be one that does spread wider but then again we do

One reason is for long-term retention of data. They might store case files for 20+ years before someone sees them again, at which point the detective working the case might not know what all of the acronyms mean. I mean, it was one thing for the 70s to use words like groovy or tubular in common vernacular, but today's kids are using acronyms up the wazoo. It's only natural that some with become popular and just as quickly fade into obscurity.

However, if their database is wrong(translating BFF to Big Fat Friend for example), then it's kind of moot anyway. I mean, we would hope a detective wouldn't be standing there exclaiming "What the fuck does WTF mean!?" but that too is entirely possible if WTF goes away in a few years. But there are certainly more obscure acronyms and slang being used on the internet.

That said, their *source* for these kinds of definitions should be places like urban dictionary(especially urban dictionary!), because their entire purpose is to define commonly used terms you won't find in a standard dictionary.

One reason is for long-term retention of data. They might store case files for 20+ years before someone sees them again, at which point the detective working the case might not know what all of the acronyms mean. I mean, it was one thing for the 70s to use words like groovy or tubular in common vernacular, but today's kids are using acronyms up the wazoo. It's only natural that some with become popular and just as quickly fade into obscurity.

Reading old comics from the 60's, I caught on to most of the lingo slinging, but the word "Natch" confused me until just last year when I realized it was short for "naturally". And "hip" young characters like Johnny Storm or Spider-Man used to say "natch" a lot.

In the context of "smoking a fag", if you take "fag" to mean "homosexual person", then "smoking" might mean "setting fire to" or "shooting". As in, "let's go smoke some gooks", as you might hear in a Vietnam movie.

you may be surprised... I found FML reading Sammy the Seal to my kids.

Printed back in the 60s, the page is that Sammy wishes he could spell, and has the blocks XFML in front of him. I thought it was incredibly funny, but couldn't tell my girls why... (too young for that kinda stuff)

However, if their database is wrong(translating BFF to Big Fat Friend for example), then it's kind of moot anyway. I mean, we would hope a detective wouldn't be standing there exclaiming "What the fuck does WTF mean!?" but that too is entirely possible if WTF goes away in a few years.

An interesting point. I was having a conversation with a neighbor yesterday about how, when I was younger, the acronym 'FTW' emphatically did not mean "For The Win." Rather it meant either "Fight The Whites" or "Fuck The World." So it seems that not only can these acronyms fade away, they can be used to give contradictory meanings as well.

The shitty scan would prevent you from reading most of it anyway, which is bizarre in itself. Did the FBI give them a CD full of shitty scan data with poor resolution images so it can't scale? Trying to download the content I hit a auth wall requiring a ScribeD account.. I could probably find a different method of access, but it's not worth the effort for something trivial like this.

Personally outside of the fact that the FBI actually answered a FOIA request I don't see this as "News" and especially not

> You get a shitty scan because when the request comes in, someone gets stuck with scanning an 83 page paper.

A paper which, if you look really close, says on it the words "this sharepoint"..... so they actually had to produce an 83 page paper before scanning it.... rather than using the "print to a file" function which, would produce an easily legible document.

> People can do bad things until they see the light and then they can change>their ways and act like a decent human being from that time on. This is what> happened with my buddy and why we became friends.

This is true, I met a guy at a party who told me how he used to be a cop, and stopped because he realized how wrong it was "When I realized I lost count of the number of times I ruined someone's life for something I personally have done many times over, I couldn't do it anymore" is what he told me.

One of my favorite all-time April Fool's websites was when The Daily WTF changed to The Daily WTH (the H of course being Heck). They said they were looking for a softer, more family-friendly image. It took me aback for a few seconds before I remembered the date.

When will they never catch you? Are you referring to a period of time which you experience repeatedly, such that "they" will never catch you during that time? Are you traveling back to 1987 and committing crimes? Are you referring to your toilet in a hardened bunker and the fact that they'll never catch you when you're defecating? Or did you mean to type "They'll never catch me, then."?

I speak a secret language called "Syntactically Correct American English", an archaic language no one understands any more.

Ignoring the jokes about it being a secret language (your post renders it a formerly-secret language) and no one unders

When will they never catch you? Are you referring to a period of time which you experience repeatedly, such that "they" will never catch you during that time? Are you traveling back to 1987 and committing crimes? Are you referring to your toilet in a hardened bunker and the fact that they'll never catch you when you're defecating? Or did you mean to type "They'll never catch me, then."?

I speak a secret language called "Syntactically Correct American English", an archaic language no one understands any more.

Ignoring the jokes about it being a secret language (your post renders it a formerly-secret language) and no one understanding it (clearly a few do, though you do not), you committed a few errors in that sentence as well. You should have typed "I speak a secret language called "Syntactically-Correct American English", an archaic language which no one understands any longer.".

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that everything in this post is syntactically correct, and that the language itself is not unambiguous.

Actually, no it is not.

Syntactically correct American English places the comma inside the quote, and single quotes within double quotes: "I speak a secret language called 'Syntactically-Correct American English,' an archaic language which no one understands any longer." British English places the comma outside the quote. Furthermore, the double period is incorrect in either version of English as is the use of double quotes within double quotes.

You're wrong. You're following various "style guides". They are not authorities on the language, nor do their recommendations improve it in any objective way. Moving punctuation to the inside of a quotation is absurd - quotations are exact references and altering them defeats their entire purpose. Alternating between single and double quotation marks is altering the quotation, so it should not be done. It also does nothing to remove ambiguity, it just buries it one level deeper (or makes it worse in so

I prefer the current, genteel Internet - one where people are well-spoken and polite. I don't want it to become a cesspool of jargon and shorthand. Sure, you may think acronyms are harmless, but if they ever catch on... next thing you know, people will be putting numbers and symbols in place of letters, or even (God forbid) substituting one letter for another!

There is just NO EXCUSE for this. Someone else pointed out this is no better than the shit lavabit pulled with their font size. However, this is worked, a too small but legible font can be magnified and processed....an illegible document may as well not have been produced.

However, now that I see sharepoint....so sharepoint...they had this in electronic form and could have easily produced a perfectly legible document and chose not to.... nice guys....way to show you give a shit about compliance with the law

According to the FBI list, preferred expansion of LOL is "Lots of Love". Example usage inside the FBI complex:
Your co-workers father has passed after a long illness.
Suggested text message: "Heard your dad died: LOL."

I vaguely recall that years ago, Microsoft - could have been just an initiative of the local branch, though! - published a web page for parents along the lines of "how to recognize that your child is an online hacker" or something like that, starting with an advice to look for signs of "1337 sp34k" in their e-mails and texts, with a "helpful dictionary". It was full of genuine pearls like some of these.:-)

I like the use correct English all the time and always wonder what on earth half of the IRC channels are talking about.
So I would like to say thanks FBI for the reference guide 3 saves me some leg work haha

I don't know which I find more hilariously sad. The fact that FBI refuses to comply with FOIA request by providing this shitty scan... or the fact that FBI feels the need to sensor the word fuck in their acronym list:)